Answer:
My, how times have changed. When this FAQ was first written, there
were a few general lists (the Global Jewish Information List,
Mail.Jewish, Mail.Liberal-Judaism, and some Chabad lists). Since then,
the Internet has exploded, and there are more lists then there are
commandments in the Torah. Furthermore, the lists of lists, and their
locations, change so frequently it is hard to keep up.
First, some general comments:
* Most lists operate using software such as listserv, listproc, or
majordomo. With this software, you send a subscription address to
a general list address, in a predefined format (for example, to
subscribe to MLJ (mail.liberal-judaism), you send a message of the
form "subscribe mlj yourfirstname yourlastname" to
listproc@shamash.org). There is a different address you use for
submissions to the list.
* Some lists provide an easy to use web interface for subscription
and unsubscription (to continue the example, for MLJ you would
visit [5]http://www.mljewish.org/). Often, such an interface is
easier to use.
Having said that, here are some of the major places to find lists.
* Shamash.Org. Shamash (the home of the SCJ FAQ) is a central
information repository for the Jewish community. It provides a
large number of mailing lists, including mail.jewish and
mail.liberal-judaism (two of the oldest). A list of all Shamash
lists may be found at
[6]http://www.shamash.org/help/listoflists.html. You can also send
the command "lists" to [7]listproc@shamash.org. Listproc based.
* Virtual Jerusalem. When the FAQ started, Virtual Jerusalem was
called Jerusalem One, and was just beginning to host lists. Now
Virtual Jerusalem, it is a major Jewish portal and a major home to
Jewish lists. A list of all Virtual Jerusalem lists (combined with
a subscription form) may be found at [8]http://vjlists.com/
* Egroups. Another major source of Jewish lists is the Egroups
server, which provides people with an easy mechanism to set up
lists. The list of Jewish Egroups lists may be found at
[9]http://www.egroups.com/dir/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Ju
daism
There are also some organizations that provide mailing lists focused
primarily on teaching Torah. Some of these organizations include:
* Chabad. Subscription information on the Chabad lists may be found
at [10]http://www.chabad.org/subscribe.html.
* Project Genesis. Subscription information on Project Genesis lists
may be found at [11]http://www.torah.org/subscribe/.
* Ohr Sameyach. The Ohr Samayech lists are managed by Virtual
Jerusalem, and may be found at [12]http://vjlists.com/
* UTJ. The Union for Traditional Judaism sponsors quite a few lists.
Information may be found at
[13]http://www.jump.net/~austinjc/lists/main.html
You will also find that most of the congregational and rabbinic
organizations have mailing lists, such as UAHC
([14]http://www.uahc.org/), Jewish Theological Seminary
([15]http://www.jtsa.edu), and so forth.
Another good way to find mailing lists is through a normal Internet
meta-search engine (i.e., one that searches multiple indexes), such as
[16]http://www.dogpile.com/. Try searching for "Jewish Mailing Lists".
The Liszt server at [17]http://www.liszt.com/select/Religion/Jewish/
also provides a list of a few Jewish mailing lists.
Another good source for mailing list info is The Directory of Jewish
Electronic Services, which is part of the Global Jewish Information
Network server at [18]http://www.jewishnet.net/. The specific URL for
the list of mailing lists is
[19]http://www.jewishnet.net/subjects/lis.html.

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